


How Can She Own Her Strangeness?!

by sara_zhara



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Coming Out, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-05 21:54:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13397028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sara_zhara/pseuds/sara_zhara
Summary: Erin just wants to survive her last year of high school peacefully. She is sure everything will change once she gets to college. Her plan would have almost worked out if it wasn't for Jillian Holtzman, a strange girl she doesn't understand or even like that much. Forced to work together they discover that perhaps they are not so different after all.





	How Can She Own Her Strangeness?!

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there, hopefully you will enjoy this work!  
> This is one of my first writings and also English is not my mother tongue.  
> Bear with me!  
> I'm thankful for comments and tipps :)  
> 

She was a strange one this Jillian Holtzmann. She sat in class often with her feet on the table. Her eyes wandering around the room, staring at the ceiling, but only rarely ever looking at the board or even the teacher. 

One could assume that she wasn’t doing very well in school because of this. But it was quite the opposite: she was on top of most classes. Erin didn’t know how but Holtz, as she liked to be called, did really good, maybe even better than her. It was unfair. Erin made sure to always pay attention, present well in class and treat the teachers with respect. But then there was Jillian not giving a single fuck about manners. Her exceptionally good exam marks made the teachers accpect her awful behaviour enough to tolerate her messing around or simply just yelling answers without raising her hand first.

Erin had to admit there was something fascinating about her. Holtzman had an attitude about her that made her seem older then most other students even though she wasn’t. She danced to her own drum beat that much was sure. Her clothes, a striped pant and vest combo looking impressively good on her. Her hair was of a full golden color and spun in messy curls around her head looking wild and sophisticated at the same time. Sometimes she wore fingerless gloves and some kind of self-made jewelery. She was hot in a punk kinda way. Erin knew why she was drawn to her looks, she liked girls after all! But the fact that Holtzman wasn’t ugly didn’t change her character, having made sure to express her feelings towards Erin’s straight-laced looks on multible occasions. So no. Erin would never like her.

What Erin irked the most was that Holtzman didn’t seem to care about anything. She was different and she didn’t fit in. But she only seemed to be amused by that. She let everything roll of her shoulder. _“How can she do that?”_ Erin wondered to herself. She too was an outsider but she could never be this confident about it as Holtzman. In fact she had struggled deeply with it and worked many years to fit in. 

She knew that she must come across as quite stiff and awkward but she couldn’t help it. Human behavior confused her. Her passion for the hard sciences had also further alienated the others from her since the beginning. She stopped talking so enthusiastically to the others about her interests because she realized they just thought she was showing off or trying to embarrass them. Years of being called ‘Nerd’ for her intelligence or ‘Ghost girl’ for the physical phenomena she was talking about but nobody knew, had let her to study the others around her closely so that she could change her behavior enough to not always stand out.

She wasn’t totally happy, of course she wished for people to share her passions and be understood. She figured she just had to survive high school and then in college everything would change. It was only less than a year after all. Her current friends were nice but Erin knew she was putting on a mask just so that they could relate to her.

So how come Holtz was never teased for her strangeness?! How did she manage to be so confident? She was wrong and unpredictable but still very much liked and popular. Yes sometimes she heard the others talk about Holtz behind her back but it was never real malicious and they enjoyed that being friends with Jillien meant they got more freedom with the teachers.

Jillian Holtzman was an Alien just like her. Maybe Erin didn’t like her because in Jillian she saw celebrated what was only ever put down in herself. But that entire aside, Jillian was still rude and just didn’t have manners. She was happy she could avoid her most of the times.

A pop from behind her made her shriek. She turned around to see Holtzman audibly making bubbles with her chewing gum. And with that she was suddenly brought back to the moment and reminded of the close proximity of their seats in this class. Holtz just sitting just a few inches behind her. Erin could see her finished assignment paper lie in front of her. Holtz was playing with some mechanical looking toy in her lap. Her eyes met Erins. She had noticed her stare and was rising one eyebrow challenging her to complain. Erin almost blushed with embarrassment. How come she had never noticed that Holtz had such pretty eyes?

Deciding she needed some fresh air Erin raised her hand to signal to their teacher. She too was finished with their assignment and she was hopeful she could exit class early. She would like to visit the school library and return to this exciting book she found recently about frequency and wavelength correlation in natural occurrences. The thought of her reading that book while having her breakfast in one of the comfortable library armchairs would improve her morning a lot. 

Just as her arm began to sting a little from being held up for some time their teacher Mrs. Gorin walked over. ‘”Yes Erin what is it, do you need help with the calculations?” her gaze was stern as she said this.

“Actually Mrs.”, Erin replied proudly, “I’m finished”. Which didn’t seem to get by unnoticed by Holtzman judging by the surprised cough coming from behind her. Gorin turned her attention to Holtz. Clearly she had heard her reaction and did now think she also wanted to say something. “Jillian”, she drew out her name: “I assume you’re finished too aren’t you?”

Holtz shrugged at that and let out a offhanded “Sure”. She slit her paper to Mrs. Gorin who took great interest in looking it over. 

Erin who couldn’t wait to get back to her reading started to form her question “Mrs. Gorin I was wondering since I completed the assignment early if I could go to the library to do some more studying...?”

She ignored Holtzmans look and concentrated on Gorin. Who didn’t seem to have heard her. Her eyes having never even left Jillian’s paper. After she had taken her time to carefully read everything she finally gave it back: “Well done Jillian, no mistakes a usual”. Only then did she turn around to Erin who was feeling somewhat angry now at being ignored like this also Mrs Gorin hadn’t even glanced at her assignment. "I hope you are not assuming you are above this class young lady”. Erin’s heart sunk at this. Gorin continued: “I do not allow my students to waste their time while they are in school. As I am your teacher I am of course prepared for these situations”.

She gave them a stern look: “I want you both to team up and work on the new paper I will give you and if you are able to complete it than maybe just maybe we can talk about you getting some more freedom with your study time”. Erins eyes widened, working with Holtz? _"No freaking way!"_

Gorins voice brought her back: “Am I understood?! Jillian I trust you will help Erin with the tasks. Erin do you think you can handle this?” 

Out of the corner of her eyes she could see Jillian sneering. At this she felt anger and determination boil up in her. Oh she was going to show them! She wouldn’t let Holtzman ruin her day! Trying to look annoyingly sweet she answerd: “Yes Mrs, that sounds absolutely lovely”. 

Gorins face showed a flash of surprise but quickly turned into a slight smile. “Well Erin I see you are confident, that’s good. I trust you two to behave. You can use the library for this work but you must inform the librarian of your presence.” Gorin retrieved two stacks of papers from her desk and gave each of them one. “There you go, you have this lesson and the next one for this”, with that she returned to her seat. 

Erin studied the paper closely it seemed to be about oscillations. Oh she was going to like this topic. 

She had almost forgotten her new team partner but was abruptly reminded of her when Holtz smacked her hand audibly on the table and made a move to stand up.

Holtzman turned to her with a bored look on her face. She looked Erin once over, her eyes clearly catching on the small bowtie on Erin’s shirt. _“Dammit”_ Erin thought, it had come with the shirt and at that time she didn’t mind it. Holtz raised an eyebrow she seemed amused by it but didn't say anything.  
Erin who felt increasingly uneasy from the stare let out an almost challenging „What?!”.

„Nothing it just…“, Holtzman replied but then seemed to decide otherwise, her expression changing to be somewhat reserved. „Well then little Ms Perfect, loosen your bowtie und let’s get going to the library. We don’t want to disappoint the authorities don’t we? “. Erin’s mouth fell open at that, but Holtz didn’t notice as she was already on her way to the door.

Shocked she felt her anger intensifying _“Who gave her the right to behave like this?!”_.

Erin was going to show Holtzman that she wasn’t the only one here who was talented with numbers.

Oh how she hated that girl!


End file.
